𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐂𝐫𝐲 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐌𝐞 - 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘐

24: On a Road Bound to Nowhere IV

On a Road Bound to Nowhere
Part 4

Dedicated to sagegreen127 💚

"Help!"

Girl chased Carl, managing to grab his sleeve and pull him back towards her. She spun him around, giving him a stern look.

No.

"Come on, Girl! We have to help!" Carl pleaded, trying to pull Girl with him.

Bad i- d- e- a, Girl signed, not knowing how to say the word 'idea' and opting to spell it out.

Carl squinted for a moment, deciphering her words out in his head. When he had it, he shook his head, sighing.

"No. We have to help!" Carl said again, managing to pull away from Girl's grip, running for the woods. Girl took off after him, internally screaming for him to come back.

When Girl finally reached Carl, he was fighting off walkers. She was quick to join in, taking down the last few that were reaching up at a man struggling to stay up on top of a large rock.

"Help!"

The man was repeating the word over and over, despite the fact that Girl and Carl had already thouroughly dispatched the walkers trying to grab at him.

"We're clear," Rick called, coming into the clearing behind his son, and holstering his gun, seeing that the walkers were taken care of.

"Come on down," Rick said to the man, glancing over at Carl worriedly. The boy in question was standing next to Girl. She was looking at the man from the boulder warily.

He was dressed like what Girl thought was a priest. Though, how she could recognize the costume or the concept was lost on her. Maybe she was smarter than she thought, or maybe she'd never really given herself enough credit for how much soul she had left.

The priest was hunched over, hands on his knees and breath heaving as his finished coughing up everything in his stomach. This made Girl squint her eyes in shock. He'd thrown up quite a bit. Meaning he had food. Girl was no stranger to vomit, she didn't think she could remember a time when she'd had enough food in her belly to vomit as much as this man just had.

"You okay?" Rick asked the man.

"Sorry. Yes," the priest stuttered out, wiping his mouth. He turned to Girl and Carl, his head bowed slightly, "Thank you."

Girl nodded at him, Carl spitting out a quick 'no problem'.

"I'm Gabriel," the priest introduced. No one spoke to greet him, or give him their names, all just staring in what could be shock, confusion, or flat out disbelief that this man had been able to survive this long.

"Do you have- have any food? Whatever I- I had left, it just hit the ground," Gabriel said meekly, looking at his feet in embarrassment.

"We've got some pecans," Carl said, offering Gabriel a handful of the nuts. Girl rolled her eyes at the boy's kindness.

"Thank you," Gabriel said, happily munching on what Carl had given him.

"Do you have any weapons on you?" Rick asked. Gabriel laughed at this. Girl didn't find it very funny, her knife still drawn and ready if something were to happen.

"Do I look like I would have any weapons?" Gabriel chuckled. Abraham grumbled at this, shoving forward and pointing an accusatory finger at the priest.

"We don't give two short and curlies what it looks like," he snapped, being calmed and pulled back shortly after by Rosita.

"I have no weapon of any kind. The word of God is the only protection I need," Gabriel argued, crossing his arms indignantly.

"Sure didn't look like it," Daryl muttered.

"I called for help," Gabriel stated, pointing to Carl and Girl, "Help came."

"We didn't come because God sent us," Carl said, sounding upset, "we came because it was the right thing to do."

"We all follow God's path for us. Even when it seems as though we've strayed, His path remains the same," Gabriel said. His voice was presentational and almost veered into the territory of mocking. It sounded as though he were talking down on them like they were all children who couldn't understand nuance.

"You're alive because of them," Rick said, pointing at the kids, "if it were up to anyone else- including your god- you'd be dead, or good as."

"We may agree to disagree," Gabriel smiled, his expression reminding Girl more of a sneer than a proper smile.

"It doesn't matter why he's alive, dad," Carl said, backtracking on what he'd said earlier in favor of moving the conversation along to somewhere meaningful, "what matters is he is. And he could help us."

Judith chose this moment to coo in Tyrese's arms, drawing Gabriel's attention to the baby.

"That's a beautiful child," he said, having fallen back into his polite demeanor.

"Do you have a camp?" he pressed.

"No. Do you?" Rick asked.

"I have a church," Gabriel responded, looking anywhere but at the people in front of him as he admitted it.

"Hold your hands above your head," Rick ordered, gun raised towards the man.

"Girl, c'mere," Daryl called, approaching Gabriel, as Rick began to ask him the same three questions he'd asked Girl in the train car.

"Hold him. Make sure he don't move," Daryl said, gesturing for her to keep her gun pointed at Gabriel. She stared coldly at the man, not quite knowing what to think of him. She didn't automatically assume that he was a bad person, but she also knew that they couldn't take any chances on strangers.

"How many walkers have you killed?" Rick asked, watching Gabriel for any sign of a lie.

"Not any, actually," Gabriel answered. Girl's eyes widened at this fact, shocked that anyone could be alive right now without having killed any walkers.

"Turn around," Daryl ordered, finishing searching Gabriel's front pockets.

"How many people have you killed?"

"None."

This answer was slightly more believable. Girl definitely wished that she'd never killed any people. It was a hard thing to deal with. Drawing blood from walkers was one thing. They were dead, soulless, monsters. But people? People still had something of what the world used to be. Even if they'd been stripped down to the bare bones of what could be considered a human being, they still had a soul. Somewhere.

"Why?"

"Because the Lord abhors violence."

After this remark, Girl was back to rolling her eyes.

"What have you done? We've all done something," Rick said, Daryl was stepping back away from the priest, confirming that he wasn't lying when he claimed that he had no weapons.

Girl was listening intently, dying to know what kind of person really lived through the end of the world, seemingly unscathed.

"I'm a sinner. I sin almost every day. But those sins, I confess them to God, not strangers," Gabriel said finally, making it clear that he would not be telling them anything about himself.

"You said you had a church?"